War Brides of the Second World War

BIFHSGO is pleased to announce the launch of its Canadian War Brides project. Find it linked in the Research & Projects section of the website under the "Migration" category.

1946 was the year that most war brides arrived in Canada and so it is appropriate to highlight this period of time 75 years later. The project website page includes an introduction to the project and also a list of war bride ships and voyages. 

For each war bride, there's a unique story. You can access some that have connections to BIFHSGO members through a handy chart which presently has ten stories.

The War Bride project will undergo further development.

Congratulations to BIFHSGO Research & Projects Director John McConkey who has championed this project.

Also, don't forget the BIFHSGO monthly meeting on Saturday.

War Brides by Air

As we continue to remember the 75th anniversary of the arrival of Canadian servicemen war brides in Canada it's worth noting they didn't all come by ship to Halifax. This article from the Hamilton Spectator published on this date 75 years ago, notes seven who came by plane.

Last Minute: Getting Started on Ancestry

Some folks tell me they've been beginning genealogists for 20 years!

If that sounds like you, tune in to Ancestry expert and genealogist Crista Cowan for a very special Ancestry Extra session this Thursday 7 January at 6 PM ET. 

Crista will run through getting started on Ancestry, touch on the building blocks of family history research, and share some of her favourite tricks for making the most out of the collections. 

If you cannot make the session, you can always watch the webinar at a later date by going to "Videos" on the Ancestry Canada Facebook page. 

Digitised East Sussex records are coming soon to Ancestry

Knowing some readers have an interest in East Sussex, here's a longish extract from a Facebook post by Sussex genealogist Clive Reedman to the Guild of One-Name Studies Group.

We are delighted that genealogy website Ancestry is digitising some of our most-used holdings. This will improve accessibility - the pandemic has made us all really appreciate digital resources - and provide useful income for The Keep. Three members of staff employed by Ancestry ... have been working at The Keep since September, they started by digitising the East Sussex pansh registers. When they become available via the Ancestry website, the scans will show all entries from the earliest 16th-century registers through to 1917 for baptisms, 1942 for marriages and banns, 1992 for bunals, and 1924 for confirmations.

Not only will they be accessible to Ancestry subscribers from home but they will also be available free on site for all visitors to The Keep and East Sussex Libraries through our People's Network computers.

The team ... have already completed work on the parish registers. They're now working on electoral registers and poll books .... They will then tackle the huge senes of probate records. It is anticipated that the project will take up to a year but some records will be made available dunng 2021.

history SCOTLAND

Here's another magazine available through your public library (certainly Ottawa's), this through RBDigital Reader.

The contents include a profile of the website womenofscotland.org.uk; a one-pager on baby names (the 2020 most popular names have not yet been announced); a history of how Scottish settlers in Cape Breton, themselves displaced, displaced Mi'kmaq; and another one-pager on how to research agricultural ancestors.

Canada's 2021 Census

Tuesday 11 May 2021 is census day in Canada.

Statistics Canada has published the 2021 Census of Population short-form (2A) and long-form (2A-L, 2A-R) questionnaires.

As in 2016, you will probably complete and file your census return online.

What about the impact of COVID-19? 

 The Chief Statistician wrote in July 2020:

The COVID-19 pandemic is now very much a reality for Canadians, disrupting life as we know it, and changing many things we had taken for granted. It has certainly created a number of issues for the 2021 Census of Population, as Statistics Canada was in the final stages of preparing for data collection when it struck the country in 2020. The Census Program adapted to the situation to ensure that the 2021 Census of Population is conducted throughout the country in the best possible way, using a safe and contactless approach.

 

This Week's Online Genealogy Events

Choose from free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required. Check so you're not disappointed.

🇨🇦Tuesday 5 January 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch OGS https://www.facebook.com/findmypastd The Ottawa Public Library. Join here.

Tuesday 5 January, 2:30 pm: Piecing the Census Puzzle Together, by Melissa Tennant for the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Centre.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/4777138

Tuesday 5 January, 8 pm: Where else to look? When matches don’t reply, by Michelle Patient for Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1597

Wednesday 6 January, 11 am: Exploring School Records, with Paul Nixon for Findmypast
https://www.facebook.com/findmypast

Wednesday 6 January, 2 pm: Genealogy Unplugged: When Offline Records Are the Best, by James M. Baker for Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1609

🇨🇦 Wednesday, 6 January, 7:30 pm: Land Records, by Heather McTavish Taylor for Huron County Brabch OGS
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/jan-5th-huron-co-webinar-land-records/

Thursday 7 January, 6:30 pm: How to Organize Your Autosomal DNA Matches at Ancestry.com, by Sara Allen for the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Centre.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/4780860

Friday 8 January, 11 am: Fridays Live, with Ellie Overthrow-Jones for Findmypast
https://www.facebook.com/findmypast

🇨🇦 Saturday 9 January, 10 am: All you wanted to know ...... about researching British home children, by Gloria Tubman for BIFHSGO
Gloria Tubman will offer an overview of British home children and the various resources available to research this topic. She will relate stories of individuals using the information discovered in various resources in Canada and in Britain. You may look at your own family research differently.  
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtc-GvrDMuEtemPmoPXwz8hvkfoWhBjIMV

🇨🇦 Saturday 9 January, 10 am: The UK 1939 Register: Why is it Invaluable? by Penny Walters for London Middlesex Branch OGS
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/the-uk-1939-register-why-is-it-invaluable/

Dave Lorente RIP

Major Joseph Arthur DAVID Lorente passed on Saturday 2 January 2021. 

Read the obituary here.

As Judy Neville wrote in tribute:

"Dave lit a huge torch and although it is dim today, I know Dave will want us all to keep it glowing and continue collecting, preserving and sharing the British Home Children stories and history."

Dave and his wife Kay were named to the BIFHSGO Hall of Fame in 2000. The citation reads:

"BIFHSGO acknowledged the influence and encouragement of Dave and Kay Lorente in initiating the Society's indexation projects arising from their outstanding advocacy role on behalf of Home Children and their families in Canada.

As the 1991 founders of Home Children Canada, they have assisted countless Canadian Home Children families and/or their descendants to access their personal records.They have also been active in raising national and international consciousness through lectures, reunions, the placement of plaques, and the compiling of Canadian Home Children's family histories.

In June 2003, the Lorentes signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing that BIFHSGO would take over their work of responding to requests for locating Home Children."

Churchill in Ottawa December 1941

Footage of Winston Churchill in Ottawa. 30 December 1941. Churchill delivers his famous "Some chicken... some neck" speech at the Parliament building in Ottawa.  

 via a tweet by Michael Evans, Windsor, Ontario

BBC History Magazine

Here are the feature articles in the January 2021 issue of BBC History Magazine, available free through public library subscriptions to Press Reader in Canada. 

Europe’s greatest martyr
Emily Guerry explores the cult that grew around Thomas Becket after his savage murder

Killers in the house of God
Kenneth F Duggan on the criminals who sought sanctuary in churches

An amazing life
Clare Mulley profiles the Nigerian jazzman who fought the Nazis

Miracle cures
Gareth Williams delves into four of history's most remarkable vaccines

South Asians in Britain
Kavita Puri on the experiences of British South Asians in the 'golden' nineties

D-Day dress rehearsal
James Holland mounts a defence of the maligned Allied invasion of Sicily

Bonnie Prince Charlie
Superhero or coward? Jacqueline Riding finds the man behind the myth

Britain’s Irish roots
Fergal Keane charts the influence Ireland historically wielded over Britain.

ALSO

From the latest History Extra email comes the article, originally published in the August 2020 edition of BBC History Magazine, Living in fear: the dangers of Victorian London . It includes items on: The garrotting panic of 1862; The pig-faced woman of Manchester Square; Haunted to death at Berkeley Square; Spring-Heeled Jack’s reign of terror.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Conversation Canada Top 10 Most-read Stories of 2020.
Three of the top stories involved conspiracy theories. 

Coming from Pen and Sword
British publisher Pen and Sword promises a vast number of publications in 2021, Expect 114 of them to appear in January including Sharing Your Family History Online and Tracing Your Family History on the Internet, both by Chris Paton.

Correction on Legacy Family Tree Webinars O Canada Series
I was misleading in writing all the speakers in this were women. The complete list includes two presentations by Paul Milner: Tracing Your War of 1812 British Soldier; and Effective Use of England’s National Archives Website. Why didn't I recognize those as part of a Canadian series?

You can print a five-page brochure of all of the upcoming Legacy webinars for 2021 at
https://familytreewebinars.com/pdfs/ftwbrochure-1609188635.pdf

Did You Know
In Ottawa, over the past 100 years, the annual average temperature has increased by 1.22C, 1C of the increase coming in the last 50 years. That's largely due to overnight temperatures staying hotter — extreme minimum temperatures have increased five times faster than extreme maximums.

Thanks to this week's contributors: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Barbara T, Btyclk, Daniel Horowitz, Edward M. Chadwick, Gail B, jmjueland, Linda, Mike More, Old Census Scribe, Sharon Moor, Sophronia, Teresa, Unknown

CanadianHeadstones.com

An email from Steve Fulton alerted me to Canadianheadstones.com —an update to the website and data. It's a completely volunteer-staffed project operating under the umbrella of the Ontario Genealogical Society (Ontario Ancestors) capturing both digital images and transcriptions of headstones of our ancestors.

Like me, Steve finds the holiday period a good time to get some concentrated work done. Here, from his 30 December blog post, is what was achieved:

• Moved close to 800,000 images and 1.9 million persons to a new website server – 99% Completed
• Develop a Hybrid type of website, WordPress & HTML to give us options within the website – 99% Completed.
• Develop a user registration system in the new site. 100% Completed
• Resolve the Broken Links within Ancestry.ca for the CH Database. 100% Resolved.
• Update the Public and Users of the website. – This is what we are doing now.
• Create a Blog on the WordPress Site for News and Updates – Ongoing.
• Develop the Database within WordPress to better manage the Database for Errors and Repairs using the WP Data Access Plugin. – Ongoing
• Develop a submission system using WordPress.
• Develop new ideas and opportunities for users.

With over 1.9 million gravestone photos from across Canada this is a major volunteer-powered free resource, particularly for Ontario which has about two-thirds of the entries.

Yuletide R&R

 

via https://www.facebook.com/heirloomarchaeology/

The Ancestor Hunt Newsletter Subscription Options

If you like to keep up with what's new in US and Canadian genealogy Kenneth Marks has two newsletter options. Here's how he describes them.

Option 1
For the last 5 years, if you have subscribed on my site, you receive 5 times a month in your email a simple list of the links to articles that I have posted on this website since the prior mailing. Sometimes there are about 10 links and lately, many more. I am changing the delivery dates to the 7th, the 15th, the 23rd, and the last day of the month. By subscribing, you will receive 4 emails a month.

Option 2
In the past month, I have started publishing a Bi-Monthly Newsletter (This!), with 4 to 8 pages of all kinds
of useful (I hope) information. It includes links to all the articles published since the previous Bi-monthly
newsletter, as well as articles that I think you might find interesting from other authors. It also includes research tips, a joke or two, and other useful genealogical stuff. By subscribing, you will receive the Bimonthly email twice a month, on the 15th and the last day of the month.

Choose the option you prefer at https://www.theancestorhunt.com/blog/please-read-change-to-subscriptions-two-options

Your Genealogy Today Jan/Feb 2021

The new issue will be available on 12 January. Cover and contents are subject to change

Table of Contents

COVER: Photographic Memories
Joe Grandinetti says a picture is worth a thousand words – if you know who’s in it!

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Sue Lisk shows us why we sometimes have to explore the past in unusual ways

Solving the 102-Year-Old Mystery of My Father’s Paternity
Doug Wren uses DNA testing and genealogy site resources to learn the identity of his grandfather

Free Persons of Color – Some Were Required to Register
Diane L. Richard looks at where some of the records might be available

Advice From the Pros: Learning to Pivot
Lisa A. Alzo discusses how to adapt your genealogy business during challenging times

Patent Remedies, Herb Gardens, and Pharmacopeias
David A. Norris looks at medicines and medical treatments of your ancestors

A Bigamist’s Paradise
Robbie Gorr looks at how the US and Canada were once considered to be go-to places for escaping to a new life

Gertrude’s Garden
Karen Dustman takes a tour of the Dangberg Home Ranch and gardens that were tended for generations in Northern Nevada

Settling Down or Moving Around
Stephen LW Greene and Monica Schirmer Eshelman look at an historical case study of three families

The Back Page: Stop and Think Before You Post!
Dave Obee says bad information is drowning out the good

https://yourgenealogytoday.com/

2021 and 2020 in Review

Happy New Year 

There's already a lot of good genealogy news for 2021:

— free access to Ancestry Library Edition continues
— free downloads from TNA continue.
— RootsTech goes online and free.
— a Canadian series from Legacy Family Tree Webinars (with almost all women presenters!)
— on 20 July, a Legacy Family Tree Webinars presentation by Alison Hare of her acclaimed talk "The Time of Cholera: A Case Study about Historical Context."

I'll not revisit the horrors of 2020, and I'm not just referring to the leadership in the USA. 

Rather, here's a look back at the year on Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections.

Do you visit the site between 9 and 10 am on Tuesdays? According to Google Analytics, there are more visitors in that hour of the week than any other. For all days the 9 - 10 am timeslot is the most popular. 

Folks clicking links in an email, it usually arrives around 9 am, account for about two-thirds of all page views. The email comes through Feedburner. You can subscribe partway down the left-hand column at https://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/.

You may be interested to know:

Over 80% of visits are from desktop and laptop computers, about 16% from tablets.

Chrome is the most popular browser used to access the site.

80% of visits are from Canada, 12% from the USA, 5% from the UK, 1.4% from Australia and 0.7% New Zealand.

The pages receiving the most views in 2020 were:

1. O/T: Longest Time - Quarantine Edition

2. Ontario Township Papers Online

3. Newspapers.com FREE Canadian access

4. YouTube: Family Secrets Revealed in Free Archival Canadian Newspapers Online: Provincial Initiatives

5. Ontario Land Records and ONLAND

For many weeks the Sunday Sundries posts are the most popular. Don't miss them.

One of the positives for me personally in 2020 was the invitation to speak on Canadian resources for MyHeritage on Canada Day. 

MyHeritage highlights of the year, including the photo colourizing and enhancing facilities, are in this blog post.

Findmypast CEO Tamsin Todd posted this New Year message.

Ancestry did not appear to have posted a New Year message, possibly as President & CEO Margo Georgiadis departed the company at the end of 2020. She did post this on 25 November.

MyHeritage Adds France, Nord Department Civil Births and Deaths

While I wouldn't normally cover French resources, those for Department Nord, just across the English Channel, including Dunkirk, may be of interest for strays. MyHeritage made the data available on 29 December.

The births, from 1820-1915, include 3,086 Smiths.

The deaths, from 1820-1935, include 2,959 Smiths.

Civil vital records were collected by government authorities in France starting in 1792. 

Interested in the trend of deaths during the First World War which was waged in and around the Department? Were more civil deaths recorded, or did the administrative system break down?

For the first 25 years of the 20th century, there is a marked decrease in deaths reported. The first two years of the war had large increases in reported deaths, as did 1918 which was influenza pandemic year.

British Newspaper Archive December Additions

The British Newspaper Archive now has a total of 40,568,308 pages online (40,111,574 last month). 

This month 47 papers had pages added (43 in the previous month). There were 21 (9) new titles. Dates range from 1766 to 1980.

Those with more than 10,000 pages added were:

TITLE	DATE RANGE
American Register	1873-1883, 1888, 1890-1893, 1897-1899, 1901, 1904-1907, 1909-1911, 1913-1914
Birkenhead News	1881-1890, 1892-1896, 1900-1907, 1909-1910, 1913, 1915-1920
Bromsgrove & Droitwich Messenger	1860-1913
Cotton Factory Times	1885-1888, 1891-1895, 1897-1899, 1902-1911, 1913-1920
East Kent Times and Mail	1866-1871, 1873, 1875-1891, 1893-1900, 1902, 1904-1932, 1935, 1937-1940, 1942-1943, 1946-1948, 1951-1952, 1956-1961, 1964-1977, 1979-1980
Fulham Chronicle	1888-1904, 1907-1912, 1923-1933
Indian Daily News	1881-1885, 1894-1897, 1899
Leicester Evening Mail	1938-1943, 1946-1960, 1962-1963
Madras Weekly Mail	1876, 1882, 1885, 1888, 1891-1892, 1894-1895, 1898, 1901-1906, 1908
Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette	1871, 1874-1892, 1894-1895, 1900-1902, 1904-1906, 1908-1909, 1912, 1914, 1916, 1919, 1921-1929
Reynolds's Newspaper	1912-1929, 1934-1938
Runcorn Examiner	1881, 1883-1888, 1893-1895, 1898, 1900-1909, 1911-1920
St. Helens Examiner	1883-1885, 1887-1888, 1890, 1892, 1894-1896, 1899-1908, 1910, 1912-1920

Yuletide R&R

The most popular Yuletide post from 2019.

Compiled from various sources.

A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
C, Eb, and G walk into a bar. The bartender says "Sorry, no minors."
An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
Two quotation marks walk into a "bar."
Bartender asks a woman what she wants. “An entendre,” she says. “Make it a double.” So he gives it to her.
A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
A question mark walks into a bar?
A rabbi, a priest, and a cliché walk into a bar.
A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly. Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Get out - we don't serve your type."
A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
A Roman walks into a bar and asks for a martinus. "You mean martini?" the bartender asks. The Roman replies "Easy! I'll let you know when I want more."
Two atoms walk into a bar. One says to the other, "I think I've lost an electron!" "Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm positive!"
Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
A synonym strolls into a tavern.
A spoonerism walks into a bar and asks where to find a shitted feet.
At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar — fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
A dyslexic walks into a bra.
A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.
A Higgs boson walks into a Catholic church and the priest says "thank god you made it, we can't have mass without you."
A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
An alliteration traipsed into a tavern, where it tangled tempestuously with an insistent, illiterate intern.
A black hole walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender asks if he'd like food with that. The black hole says 'No thanks, I'm a light eater'.
A typo wakled into a bar.
Voice recognition walks into a bar. You think he wood of scene it write in front of him.

More Progress on English Parish Records from FamilySearch

Since Christmas Day FamilySearch has updated these titles with the number of new transcriptions shown, followed by totals in parentheses.

England, Gloucestershire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1642-1996: 5,947 (80,067).

England England, Herefordshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1583-1898: 7,812 (1,209,229).

England England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988: 19,878 (1,404,589).

England England, Northumberland Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1920: 10,817 (252,859).

Find an announcement of all updates this week in the FamilySearch Newsroom.